Betwixt and Between
by lemondragonfly
Summary: Set sometime after the events of ME2. Shepard and her crew go on a mission to rescue some hostage scientists, but find more than they expected. FemShep, Garrus, Jacob, Miranda, Kaiden. some FShep/Garrus later Multiple POV. Multi-chaptered. In progress.


**Author's note: BioWare owns the Mass Effect characters. Thanks to Sialater for proofing. Will be posting more chapters... sometime. Please R&R.**

The Blue Suns insignia was etched into the feeble chest plate. Mercenary work didn't always pay well, and most mercs had to make do with what they could afford. This was not a well made piece. Shepard rolled her shoulders in a bid to find a comfortable groove in the plating, but the padding just rubbed awkwardly against her, chafing her skin. She had never appreciated her custom-made N7 armour so much before. Looking at her squad, she could tell they were thinking the same thing. Jacob was struggling to pull on a pair of battle-worn boots, and a grimace on his face told her they were far too small. Garrus, meanwhile, was rubbing dried blood off his blue and white plating. Catching Shepard's eye, he shot her a look of disgust. She nodded in agreement.

She didn't like this. There was something entirely dishonest about what they were doing. She had lied before, sure. She had even lied to people's faces, sometimes loudly, sometimes waving a gun, but wearing the uniform of a dead man and claiming it as your own? There was a line there somewhere, and she had crossed it.

She sighed, and adjusted her armour again. There was no other way, of course. It had been Miranda's idea: go in disguised as their own, avoid making a scene, hopefully slip out undetected with the research team in one piece. That was the plan. The merc groups had been getting increasingly antsy of late, inclined to shoot first and ask questions later, and make profoundly stupid decisions. Faced with an attack by the infamous Commander Shepard on their home base, there was no telling how they'd react. And she needed those scientists alive.

Jacob grunted as the boot finally slipped into place. He stood up and adjusted his greaves. Garrus picked up his gun and moved to Shepard's flank. She straightened up, "Ready to move out?"

The team nodded. Miranda emerged from the shuttle carrying a small box, "There's a signal disrupting communications in the area. Once you set off, you'll have no way to contact us. If you should run into trouble, you're on your own."

"Remind me again why we're doing this?" Garrus shook his head.

Miranda ignored him."Take this." She pressed the box into Shepard's hand. "If you can find the source of the signal, this should disable it. We can pick up your co-ordinates and find a landing zone. If not, you'll need to make your way back here. I'll stay by the shuttle in case there are any… complications."

Complications? When were there ever not complications? Increasingly, Shepard was beginning to notice that nothing was ever as easy as it should be. She was starting to feel like the centre of a galactic conspiracy. She smiled. In a way, she supposed, she was. The council refused to acknowledge the Reaper threat, and since she had detonated the Collector base ship, even The Illusive Man seemed to be cutting her out of the loop. Life in the universe was headed for disaster, and everyone seemed to be playing petty politics. And no one was listening to her. Well, not exactly no one. She looked at her team and smiled, "No problem. We'll be back before they even know we were here." She knew she was lying as she said it.

They set off. Easy enough mission, in theory. Sneak into the Blue Suns base, find the scientists, bring them back to the Normandy, then ask them to explain what the hell was going on. Well, that last part had been Mordin's plan. Apparently not even the smartest Salarian in the galaxy could understand Pre-prothean technology without a little bit of help. He had asked for Shepard to help him build a research team from a list of names he thought might be of some use. Imagine her surprise when those very same scientists were reported missing within a few weeks of one another, and that there was strong evidence to suggest the Blue Suns were involved. Oddly specific hostages, for a Merc group. Something was missing from this picture. Part 2 of the plan involved bugging the Blue Suns systems, hopefully to find out what.

The atmosphere was humid and stifling, especially without the comfort control of her own armour to help her. Jacob's gun lay heavy in his hands as they sweated on through the dense undergrowth surrounding the base. Garrus didn't seem too fazed, but then on Palaven this was probably normal. She made a mental note to ask him about it when they weren't stealthing about in the jungle.

They lost radio contact almost immediately. She had been expecting it, but it still made her uneasy. She hated radio silence. If the plan failed, if they couldn't make it into the base undetected, then there was going to be a whole lot of fire headed their way, and air-support could mean the difference between a failed mission and a dead team.

Garrus suddenly stopped and crouched down. "Did you hear that?"

Jacob pressed his body into the trunk of a tree, and raised his gun. Crouching low, Shepard scanned the forest, and listened. "There's something out there."

"You think it's mercs?" Jacob said.

"They'd have taken a shot already," Shepard pointed out.

"Unless this is a trap," Garrus scoped the surrounding brush.

If this was a trap, that would mean someone had to know they were coming, which meant they were already compromised. Or maybe they had accidentally tripped some kind of security measure when they had landed. Whatever it was, something wasn't right. But if they were being watched, standing still wasn't going to help them any. They had to keep moving. Shepard slowly straightened up, and motioned for the other two to follow her. They continued their advance with caution. From time to time, they would stop, and wait, and listen. The forest echoed faintly with strange birdsong, and scraping and scratching came from somewhere within the dense tangle of vines and branches, but other than that the place was quiet. Deathly quiet.

The attack which followed shattered the silence with an alarming suddenness. There was virtually no cover from the barrage of bullets which seemed to rain down from all angles, but the team bunkered down and defended themselves as best as they could. Gunfire of all calibres shredded the surrounding flora to scorched pulp. The dense jungle concealed their assailants from view, so they couldn't even name their enemy. Jacob set up a biotic barrier which gave them a few minutes to get their bearings on the situation, but it was clear that they were vastly outgunned. This was not good. Shepard swore under her breath. Nothing was ever easy.

"They're all around us, Commander," Jacob told her.

"They knew we were coming," Garrus said.

"So much for the stealth approach," Shepard shook her head. They needed those scientists, and she needed to find out what the Blue Suns were up to. Continue on, or retreat back to the shuttle and return with back up, either way they were in for one hell of a fight. A stray bullet made it through Jacob's barrier and clipped her shoulder. Shepard swore again, ignoring the look Garrus gave her. "We've got to find a better position. Jacob, keep this barrier going as long as you can, Garrus and I will take out as many as possible, and we'll make a break for the shuttle."

"They'll be expecting that, Commander."

"You got a better idea, Vakarian?"

The Turian started to say something, but thought better of it. He raised his rifle and returned fire. A cry from the undergrowth indicated that his shot landed true. He gave a holler of triumph, and sprang up into battle. Shepard couldn't help but smile as she cocked her shotgun and prepared to charge. Her own biotics would keep her protected long enough to land a few killing blasts, and the benefit of fighting in close when surrounded was that it would be harder for the others to hit her without killing their own. Of course, she needed to get up close first. A quick glance at Jacob saw him deep in concentration, but even focusing on the barrier he was still able to fire off a steady stream of shots into the surrounding army. Shepard nodded to herself, and charged into the jungle.

The battle was intense. No matter how many shots she got off, the barrage of firepower didn't seem to let up. These soldiers meant business and they knew how to fight. As bullet after bullet chipped into her armour, Shepard regretted the loss of her N7 gear even more. This cheap merc crap wouldn't withstand much more punishment, and whoever was firing at them was clearly in possession of many more credits than the unwilling donor of her current attire. On the edge of her vision, she could see Garrus at work, a fiery glint in his eye as he cut a path back to the shuttle. Occasionally, he let out a shout of triumph as another merc was felled. Blue and white bodies collapsed all around them. Jacob's barriers were holding, and they were making slow progress through the fray. They might actually make it out of this. Shepard steeled her resolve and took a running jump at a large mercenary with an assault rifle. He was firing directly at her, but she knocked him back with a biotic wave, and blasted the gun from his hands. She had just taken aim at his head when the shotgun gave a sickening click and her last spent heat sync fell to the ground. She met the man's gaze as he regained his senses and reached for his pistol. A quick rifle-butt to the jaw sent him staggering backwards, and a kick to the knee brought him down. Shepard stamped hard on his head to make sure he stayed that way, and turned too slowly to properly defend against an advancing enemy. His punch caught her off guard and she stumbled into a mess of branches. The mercenary swung at her again, and raised his shotgun to her chest. A shot rang through Shepard's ears, and her attacker slumped forwards. She barely had time to move out of the way before he fell where she had been. She quickly grabbed the fallen man's shotgun, and called out an acknowledgement to Garrus, who had turned his attention to a particularly angry looking sniper. She would thank him later.

Shepard cocked the gun and charged again, but became aware that the biotic barriers they had been relying on were failing. She looked for Jacob and gasped in horror as several blue uniformed men surrounded him, attacking with intemperate fury. With a cry, she charged into the group, knocking a couple of them to the ground. She let of a barrage of blasts from the shotgun, and the men scattered and fell. Jacob got slowly to his feet, his arm was hanging limp at his side. He opened his mouth to cry something, but a deafening roar drowned him out. Shepard turned to face a blinding flash of white and an explosive bang. As the ringing in her ears subsided, the white faded to grey, and then all she knew was darkness.

* * *

There was black. That was all.

She lay in the blackness for what seemed like a lifetime, unable to make her body move. She hoped she wasn't dead again. After all she had been though, that would be too much. Face down two Reapers, and get killed by a bunch of mercs. She groaned at the thought. Wait. That was good. Dead women can't groan. She concentrated. Somewhere in the darkness, a voice was calling her name. She fixated on the familiar sound and tried again to move. Her fingertips tingled, and suddenly she was swimming back to life again. Slowly at first, but with an increasing speed, the darkness dissipated and the waking world pulled into sharp focus. She sat up.

A shocked looking Garrus rocked back on his knees. His had been the voice in the abyss. "Shepard, I thought -"

Slowly, Shepard looked around, trying to get her bearings, where in the galaxy were they?

Wherever they were, they were in a cell. Not a very impressive one, mind you. It looked as if it had been some kind of random storage area, as broken shelves and upturned boxes littered the walls and floor. There was a long bench against the back wall, but apart from that the room was unfurnished. The only thing that really indicated it was a prison was the heavy reinforced door on the far wall. There were no locks visible on that side, and no handle. A small window had been cut into the metal just above head height. Shepard noted that this little feature rather undermined the reinforcement, but it didn't really matter: the opening was far too small to even attempt breaching. They were trapped.

Shepard shook her head, trying to recall what had happened. She remembered the fight, then there had been some kind of explosion and Jacob- "Jacob?" the question was directed at Garrus, who simply glanced in the direction of the bench. With a growing sickness, she realised that what she had taken to be a disused pile of plating and cloth was in fact the body of her young officer. "Is he -?"

"No." Garrus shook his head. "He's in bad shape, but he's alive. For now."

Ignoring the ache that flowed through every muscle in her body, Shepard made an effort to stand. Garrus put an arm around her and gently helped her to her feet. Her head throbbed and she was still slightly dizzy, so she leaned on his battered armour to steady herself. Slowly, he guided her to the bench, where she sat down next to Jacob and examined the damage.

Garrus was right, he was in a bad way. The left side of his armour had been scorched away to almost nothing, and patches of bare flesh on display were reddened and oozing. His face was swollen and burned, rendering the handsome operative virtually unrecognisable. He was breathing heavily, but at least he was breathing. "What happened?"

Garrus leaned against the back wall and rubbed his collar. "Rocket launcher. Some sort of stun grenade, I think. A team of Blue Suns came around from behind and opened fire with heavy artillery. Got you and Jacob with the first shot. Didn't see it coming."

"Reinforcements?"

"No." Garrus straightened up. "That's the strange thing. They didn't just open fire on us, Commander. They also took out those we were fighting. 6 missiles, and the fight was over. Then, they rounded us up, and the next thing I know we're in here. Beyond that I know as much as you."

"They didn't take you out with the rockets?"

"No. I managed to move a little faster than you. Figure I've taken enough rocket fire to last me several lifetimes," he flashed a faint smile at her. It didn't hold. "But then one of the guards came at me with the butt of his rifle, and I wasn't quite fast enough. I came to in this room, with you and Jacob laying next to me. I wasn't sure you were going to make it."

He said the last words with a downwards glance, and Shepard did not miss the concern in his voice. "It'll take more than a few mercenary bastards to take me down. Rockets or no." She went to stand again, but stinging in her ribcage kept her seated. She breathed in sharply, and forced a grin through gritted teeth. "What was it you once said about pissing me off?"

"I'd hate to be a member of the Blue Suns right now, that's for sure," he returned her grin, but lowered his voice. "But there's very little we can do trapped in this room. We need to get out of here."

Shepard looked around again at the ramshackle prison. "This isn't even a proper holding cell."

"I'd say these guys don't take many prisoners."

"So why'd they take us?" Garrus didn't have an answer. She hadn't expected one. Something was very wrong with this scenario. She had felt it from the get-go.

"Commander, there's something else." There was a weight in his words, as if he was considering exactly what to say. "Those mercs we were fighting… I've fought my fair share of mercenary groups, and some are better than others, but the group that attacked us first, they were different. They didn't fight right. Not the Blue Suns I know."

Shepard nodded in agreement. You could tell a lot about an enemy by they way they fought. Most merc groups were organised and skilled, but there are certain risks someone fighting purely for a pay check will not take. There comes a point when no matter how many credits are on the line, it stops being worth it. More to the point, the attack had been meticulous until the rockets got involved. Choreographed, almost. She had never met a merc squad that exhibited such togetherness in their offensive. When fighting for credits, people tended to get a bit selfish into the bargain. She considered this for a minute, but had to add it to the growing list of questions for which she did not have an answer.

She rolled her shoulder and stood up. "How many guards?"

"Four directly outside, that I can see. More on patrol. Every so often I get the sense that someone is checking on us. Been a while since the last one. We could fight -"

"I'm guessing they've got guns?"

Garrus' head dropped. Damn it. This was a bad situation to be in. Then again, she supposed, they had been in worse. Fighting was certainly an option. They had no weapons, but that would quickly change after they brought a few men down. But even once they were out of the cell and armed, they still had no idea where they were or what was happening. And that depended on them surviving long enough to get out of the cell. Her shoulder stung, her ribs were on fire and her head still swam worse than after a night on straight ryncol. She could make a large bet their guards weren't suffering the same malady. And as for Jacob… Well, they were potentially pitting one and a half soldiers against an army. "We need medi-gel. Something to get Jacob back on his feet long enough to get him back to the Normandy. And I need to find out what's going on here. If we're still alive, that means they want something from us. And that gives us some time." She caught Garrus' eye, and added, "We aren't leaving him behind."

The look on his face told her she had misread him. "Of course not, Commander. I didn't mean -" he sighed. "I just don't like this. But if you think we need to wait it out, then I can do that."

"Hey, we've done it before." She smiled at him again. This one was genuine.

A sound at the door turned her attention, as it slowly began to open. On the other side, several large Blue Suns wielding assault rifles and shotguns stood like a century guard. Garrus moved beside her and she could sense his muscles tense, ready for a strike.

"No," she said, under her breath. "Not now." He gave no sign that he acknowledged her. She prayed he wasn't about to do anything stupid.

One of the mercs who was apparently their leader, stepped gingerly into the cell. He was a human man who carried a gun much too big to suit his small stature. Shepard might have laughed, had he not been pointing it at her. She steeled herself for whatever confrontation this was going to be, and hoped she didn't look as bad as she felt. "Commander Shepard?"

So, they knew who she was. So much for undercover. Shepard sighed and nodded her head.

"Hands where I can see 'em." the small man said.

Shepard held hers out, and the man took a step back. She smiled. Sometimes it was nice to have a reputation. "You've taken our weapons. What are you expecting me to do?"

The mercenaries had moved into the cell and surrounded them. Garrus had turned to face the ones behind them so that they were almost standing back to back. Ten men with guns trained on two unarmed and injured soldiers? Part of him was probably enjoying the attention. Shepard shifted her attention back to the leader. He was eying her carefully. "My man needs medical attention."

"You aren't in any position to make demands." His finger twitched slightly against the trigger.

"No. That's true. But I assume you've come here for a reason. Whatever you want from me, we can do it the easy way or the hard way. And I might feel a bit more cooperative if I know my team is being looked after." It was a gamble, but it was one she had to make if Jacob was going to stand any chance of surviving. Indecision flickered across the small man's face. Ah. So not the big boss, then.

"Come on." She offered him a friendly smile, "You can always kill us later, if that's what you want."

He nodded. "I'll get him some medi-gel. But you have to come with me." He glanced at Garrus and added, "alone."

"Do I get to ask where we're going?"

"I think you've talked enough." The small man was rallying. Maybe giving into the medi-gel made him feel weak in front of his men. There were a couple of turians there who looked less than impressed. Best not to push him.

"Fine." Still smiling, Shepard stepped towards the door. Two of the guards grabbed her and bound her wrists in a motion that sent pain shooting through her arm. She did not let her face give her away. The armed men had backed Garrus into a corner, and as Shepard was marched from the cell she caught his gaze. Anger flashed in his cool eyes. Shepard shook her head, and glanced towards Jacob. Garrus nodded as she was ushered out. The door swung closed with a metallic crunch.

Then, they marched.


End file.
